Arc program matches jobs to workers with disabilities

Jerry Little places decorations on a Christmas tree at the Delta Chi fraternity house as part of Arc’s supported-employment program.

Staff photo | Dusty Compton

By Ashley ChaffinStaff Writer | The Tuscaloosa News

Published: Sunday, December 1, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, November 29, 2013 at 6:02 p.m.

Three years ago, the house manager at Delta Chi fraternity was having trouble finding employees willing to do the jobs for which they were hired. She had to fire one after only three days and another quit after just a week, but The Arc of Tuscaloosa County’s Palk Enterprises supported-employment program solved her problems.

Jerry Little places decorations on a Christmas tree at the Delta Chi fraternity house as part of Arc’s supported-employment program.

Staff photo | Dusty Compton

Facts

About PESE

The Arc of Tuscaloosa County's Palk Enterprises supported-employment program began in 1985 as a fee-for-service program to find work for those with intellectual disabilities. It has grown to include those with physical disabilities.

“If I had 10 jobs, I would hire 10 people (from the program),” said Vivian Anderson, the house manager for Delta Chi and another University of Alabama fraternity. “They are happy to have a job. They work very, very hard. They’re glad to do whatever you ask them to do.”

PESE began in 1985 as a fee-for-service program offering individuals with intellectual disabilities employment. In nearly 30 years, the program has grown to offer customers with both intellectual and physical disabilities supported employment.

“It is competitive, gainful employment,” said Tim Green, program manager of PESE. “It is the same jobs that everyone else is out there competing for.”

The Arc of Tuscaloosa County is a nonprofit organization that provides services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The PESE program has 44 employers that have employed individuals for two or more years. In a given year, PESE averages 40 job placements with 33 individuals maintaining long-term employment and 94 individuals receiving long-term support.

Individuals are connected with PESE if they qualify through the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services. Ninety-two percent of the people placed through PESE are the most significantly disabled, Green said.

In the past, the process of getting a job began with an initial intake to find out which type of jobs the individual was interested in and if there were any barriers to employment. Through PESE’s participation in a pilot program, which will continue until March 2014, the initial stages of the process have grown to include two team meetings.

“The consumer or individual, they’re the main person in this team meeting,” Green said. “It’s not a bunch of people sitting around telling them what they are going to do — it’s their meeting, it’s their team. They control what goes on with their program.”

The “team” is made up of the individual, job coaches, family, case managers and anyone else they want input from as they begin working toward employment.

“Every pilot program that has come down the line to build these programs, we’ve been selected as one of the three or four programs to be a part of that,” Green said.

One of those pilot programs helped to develop milestones for supported employment in Alabama. PESE has been an ADRS Milestone Supported Employer since 1999. Milestones offer the individuals various dollar amounts for completing different stepping stones on the path to employment.

One of those milestones assesses the individual’s ability to do the types of jobs they are interested in.

“The individual will work typically an hour to two hours at each job site,” Green said. “They don’t get paid, and ADRS assumes that liability. We’ll go out and do at least two different job sites.”

Ideally, these assessments will help find them a job they want and are qualified for. From there, job development begins and the individual moves on to other milestones and into the workplace.

Green said PESE wants its individuals to be integrated into the workforce the same way everyone else is.

“The only thing different we ask for, and it’s something that anybody can ask for that may not typically ask for it, is a reasonable accommodation,” he said.

In supported employment, reasonable accommodation means a job coach and ongoing support throughout employment. PESE employs four employment specialists — Mary Guyton, Bill Niblett and Cynthia Foster serve as job coaches and Diane Morrow is the long-term support case manager.

The job coaches work with the individuals during the first 90 days of employment to train the individuals as well as help them build natural workplace supports such as friendship and communication, Green said. Following that 90 days, the individuals become a part of Morrow’s workload. Morrow offers each individual long-term support by making contact with the employer and employee twice a month.

The ongoing support is just as much for the employer as it is the employee.

“We develop relationships with these employers,” Green said. “You don’t have 95 employers you’re working with if you’re not giving something back to them, too. We’re there for them if they need help training, with promotions, and we have events to give these employers recognition.”

Anderson, who has three employees through the program, said she agrees that it feels like partnership with PESE.

“I don’t have many problems, but when I do, all I have to do is call (the job coach) and she handles it,” Anderson said.

Some of the other employers that have employed individuals through PESE are Walmart, the Paul W. Bryant Museum, the Tuscaloosa County and City schools and the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Jobs range from custodial work to cashiers to working in fast-food kitchens.

Morrow said seeing the clients succeed both inside and outside of the workplace is the most rewarding part of her job.

“That’s why we are here. We’ll assist them in anything that they need,” she said. “Our job does everything just so that those (clients) can be successful in life.”

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